First trip to Europe-2 Weeks-Rome-Florence-Venice-Paris
 

Hi!

My Husband and I (26,23) have booked flights to Europe this May and we are super excited. I have been trying to plan this trip since we got married 2 years ago and finally(!!!) have it booked..well the flights at least. We are planning on going for 14 days leaving JFK on April 30 flying into Rome and returning from Paris on the 14th. What I am planning to do is spend 4 days in Rome, 2 in Florence, 4 in Venice, and 4 in Paris. This is including travel times considering our flight out of Paris is in the evening. I am having a hard time finding nice hotels in Italy ( and confused about what our itinerary should be) and would like recommendations for Paris. I would like to stay in either the 1st,7th,or 8th arrondissement. Also, I dont know if this is a stretch but we really dont want to spend over 200$ a night, even that is alot. Paris is much more clear to me and I understand where things are and what to do there, Italy pretty much makes me feel lost and I dont know where to start with reservations.
We are kind of artsy fartsy people who like to stroll around but also want to make the most of our trip.
We really need your help and suggestions!
Thanks a lot : )

Is there a reason why you want to stay in the 1st or the 8th? I have stayed in both area mostly because of the availability during the high season and did not care for either arrondissement. I thought they were too business oriented areas.

I now book Paris hotels early and stay in the 5th, 6th, or the 7th.
One hotel in the 6th within your price range is:

http://www.hotelbonaparte.fr/ang/accueil.htm

One poster here has a huge thread on Rome and Venice accommodations (perhaps Florence too). Put "franco" in the search box at the top of the screen and his postings about accommodations will come up. These may help you identify hotels that meet your criteria.

Maps showing the sights might help you determine where you want to stay in Rome or Venice. In Rome, hotels near Campo dei Fiori or Piazza Navonna are very central and have lots of cafes in the area for early morning breakfast or late drinks. I like the Campo dei Fiori area with a smaller square and the morning market.

You can find some reasonable accommodations (under $200) throughout Italy and France.

One place in Paris that is reasonable, charming, and in a good location is the Hotel des Grandes Ecoles. They have a lovely garden where you can eat breakfast or bring back a picnic supper from one of the many shops in the area. This hotel is within your budget. I've stayed there and really enjoyed it.

http://www.hotel-grandes-ecoles.com/

I rent through private-home-owners such as rent holiday homes or vacation rental by owners VRBO. I have luck with lovely homes complete with 1 or 2 bedrooms and kitchen. My goal is always to find a home for under 100E a night. Homeowners have been very helpful with questions and even giving us a rides to & from the airport! I especially like getting up and not having to dress in order to have a light breakfast but just relaxing with coffee and food I put in the fridge from the local shops. It makes me feel like a local! A few I have found are in Venice, Orvieto and my favorite-Lucca.
Hope this helps.

You have a very ambitious trip planned. Have you considered forgoing Florence and adding on to Rome or Paris?

Rome hotels: http://www.residenzacanali.com/01english.html
http://www.smeraldoroma.com (Their site appears to be down at the moment)
http://www.hotelpanda.it

Venice hotels: http://www.lacalcina.com/ (probably over your budget but highly recommended on this forum)
http://www.hotelgalleria.it/camereENG.html#
http://www.alcampaniel.com/ (A very basic no frills budget b&b)
http://www.bbalessandra.com/index.php
http://www.pensioneaccademia.it/ (another highly recommended and probably over your budget)

You are very late in your planning and I would encourage you to book hotels asap! Have a wonderful trip.

If you're willing to consider an apartment we stayed here on our trip to Venice, super location but out of the way and quiet with a small balcony where you can watch the gondolas go by.
http://www.rosadivenezia.com/en/index.htm

For views from the balcony see: http://www.pbase.com/caes/venice_2&page=2 and click on #2

Don't change a thing in your itinerary. You are in your 20s-it'll be fine. You'll be smitten and return anyway.

If I missed it above, sorry, but also check trip advisor for hotel reviews. You can't go wrong with hotels recommended above. Yes get going on hotels asap. A back up plan for hotels is to check out one of the chains-they'll probably have something in the cities you plan to visit. Again, a back up because you might give up some of the charm of more local hotels.

Please report back about your trip!

Paris:
We stayed at the Hotel Valadon in the 7th and I loved it. I liked the sleek, clean Ikea style furnishings, the non-smoking room that smelled fresh and clean, the friendly, sort of snide but charming owner, the breakfast room with the owner's dog hanging out and homemade jams, and the internet access.

We LOVED our room. If you look at the website and find the photo of the breakfast room, we had the main room of the family cottage that you see across a tiny courtyard through the back windows. http://www.hotelvaladon.com/hotel.htm

I think it is the largest room, with a good sized bed, euro-style down poof things instead of a comforter, a huge bathroom downstairs with a huge tub (stairs are steep so not good if you have mobility issues or little kids), and a tiny balcony sitting area in front. We did not have the adjoining room to make the family cottage but just the larger room with the black couch in the corner that you can see on the website.

The location was great, right near the Rue Cler. I know it might be overrun with Rick Steeves followers but we were there in winter and they were not so much in evidence.

We liked the 7th but also love the Marais- they have very different feels. For me, the clean, non-smoking comfort of the room at the Valadon made up for the missing the twisty streets and great shops in the Marais. We spent much more to stay at the charming Hotel de la Bretonnerie there, which is LOVERY; our room was gorgeous and romantic but reeked of smoke (I'm very sensitive to smells.)

Venice:
We loved our canal view large room at the Hotel Galleria. Friendly staff, great location, awesome view, hole in the wall pizza place right next door with fabulous pizza and prosecco. Just be sure to ask for a large canal-view room, the small rooms with no view didn't really look worthwhile.

We also loved dinner at the La Rivista restaurant in the Ca Pisani hotel: http://www.capisanihotel.it/ The hotel is too expensive for us but looks fabulous.

er- LOVELY, not LOVERY (perhaps I was attempting to channel Eliza Doolitle- Loverly).

ChicTravlr,

I feel your excitement, such as mine was the first time I went to Europe.

Dont let Italy scare you. I have been 4 times and cant wait to go back.

Consider apartments over hotels. So much more enjoyable. Makes you really live the life. There are studio or 1 bedroom apt. in every city you are going to within your $200.00 per night budget.

In Paris we stayed in the 4th. We will again in Sept. It was right in the middle of sites.

In Rome consider Campo di Fiore area. A bountiful of food and local color. I have stayed by the Trevi and near the Vatican,
yet perfer this area.

In Venice I would have been happy on a old mattress in an alley. :)
All is heaven.

Florence is magnificent.
David and the Duomo are beyond words. As is the Uffizzi.
Dont miss Primavera and Birth of Venus.
This is a great city to stroll to and from different squares taking in the beauty.

You are blessed to have this wonderful trip in your future.

have fun and dont take more tha you can carry.

HI CT,

Good plan.

>4 days in Rome, 2 in Florence, 4 in Venice, and 4 in Paris. <

As much as I love Venice, I love Paris even more.

I would take one night from Venice and add it to Paris.

If you are willing to save money and stay in clean, basic accomodations that are a 10 min walk from the SMN station in Florence, I can highy recommend
www.florenceby.com/peterson/pages/profile.htm

In Venice, take a look at www.alcampaniel.com/ and www.hotelbernardi.com/en/ for lower cost places.

http://pensioneaccademia.it/ and
www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_menu_en.html
have also gotten good reviews here.

In Paris, must your hotel be in the 1st,7th,or 8th? Especially, why the 1 and 8?

We always stay at the Hotel Bonaparte, 61 Rue Bonaparte in the 6th. From 134E dbl w/bkfst. It is just around the corner from Place St. Sulpice, near 3 metro stops and 4 bus routes. Has AC and an elevator.

The staff speaks English well, and is very helpful.

Tel 33 1 43 26 97 37
FAX 33 1 46 33 57 67
[email protected]
www.hotelbonaparte.fr

For more info, enter "Hotel Bonaparte" in the "search this forum" box.

((I))

Sounds like a great trip!

We stayed at www.hotelgalleria.it for part of our honeymoon and just loved the location in Venice.

We always stay at http://www.hotel-saintjacques.com/ in Paris, its in the Latin Quarter and has a great location.

Best of luck planning!

Thanks everyone for all your great info!
We are a little late in planning because we were waiting for specific prices for our flights. we had to get flights that were under $624(leaving from Ny) to use our miles to our best advantage. I was getting real antsy and didnt think it would happen but I actually found tickets for $609 so we ended up having spare miles to use and only had to pay like $30 for our flights. Sooo thats why I havent booked hotels yet because we literally just booked our flights. Also as much as i want to book hotels,i am the type of person that needs to see everything before deciding. But I hope to have everything booked in a week. I have heard good things about Hotel Bonapaerte. Anyone ever stay at De La Tour Eiffel in the 7th? i was looking at that and also Hotel Beaubourg, anyone know anything about it?
travelfan- I dont want to forget about florence, Ive heard it is beautiful-I also want to take the first part of the day to go to pisa. our friends stayed there and said it was the best part of their trip to italy.. they did what we want to do but didnt go to paris.

Blueswimmer- you made me laugh with ur comment on loverly-haha

Thanks guys, I will check out these hotels and be back with more questions!

Im baaaack!

Thanks jamikins for recommending Hotel st-jacques, the second I went to the website i fell in love with the hotel, I read the reviews and booked it! My hubs also decided to spring for a fancier room(which is so not his style) so im even more excited! Thanks so much for letting me know about this beautiful hotel!

I agree w/ Ira that you could happily cut a day from Venice and add to Paris. You'll be SO happy to have that extra day there!

Hotel St Jacques looks great, as does Hotel Beauborg. If you haven't seen Charade- set in the Hotel St Jacques- it is worth watching if you are going to stay there. The scenery will get you excited for Paris, and you will love Audrey Hepburn's clothes and the quirky chemistry between Hepburn and Cary Grant.

Have a wonderful trip!

Hi ChicTrvlr,

We did pretty much the same trip (+ Amsterdam) 2 years ago in 3 1/2 weeks. That said, your schedule's do-able although I'd say split your Venice-Florence time 50-50 this time out and get a sense of which place appeals to you more (unless you already have a notion). We stayed in apartments and were under the 100 Euro threshold with ease. Unless you're especially particular about staying in hotels, the apartment route is definitely worth going.

As far as Paris goes, we stayed in the 11th and were quite happy to ride the Métro to wherever we had to go. Insofar as accommodations are concerned, I booked all ours on venere.com and had no complaints.

HTH
K

Hi again,

Thanks Blueswimmer, I am a big audrey fan and I got really excited when I read that the hotel was featured in the movie. I have seen Roman Holiday and read in the fodors italy 2009 book where some of the film was shot, so thats exciting too.


I dont think were gonna swtich up the way our days are planned I think were both pretty happy with what we have in mind, we just have to figure out day to day intineraries and then we'll be set. For some reason Florence doesnt appeal to me as much as everything else so i feel 2 days i good enough, and the hubs couldnt care less.

Has anyone ever taken the overnight train from venice to paris? i know that taking a flight is cheaper and faster on easyjet or ryanair but the times arent so good for us and its 123 euro a person!--ridiculous. So i thought of buying the france-italy pass if its worth it for the money. I also hate flying. So i try to find ways around it if possible.

Thanks!

Can't help you with the overnight train to Paris but we had 3 "wow" moments

with churches:

In Rome-Santa Maria della Vittoria
in Venice-Santa Maria Assunta ai Gesuiti
In Paris-Saint Chappelle

If you are a Bernini fan, don't miss the one in Rome. The one in Venice is furtherest from Grand Canal and back on the side facing Murano/Burano so if you go to the islands, look for it before or after. You must go through Palace of Justice entrance to get to Chappelle but it's worth it.

Venice http://www.bbvenezia.com/pages/transpEng.htm

Last October, we stayed at Bed and Breakfast Venezia. In the past, we stayed in more expensive hotels closer to the center of everything. This b&b is about a 20 minute walk along the canal to St Marks Square. Also, the water bus stops about one block through a small park from your door. It is a cute neighborhood with a small pizza place and a couple smaller restaurants open in the evening. It was great.

There are benches to sit along the canal and watch the sunset and the boats go by.

The price listed is 85 Euro for a double. We had the Garden Room which a bit larger and would be 10 Euro more. It is up two flights of stairs and the garden is a small balcony with some flowers.

Tripadvisor gives it good reviews.

We enjoyed our stay there very much.